


The Nursemaid

by Ladytalon



Series: The Doctors Light [7]
Category: DCU
Genre: F/M, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-23
Updated: 2015-04-23
Packaged: 2018-03-25 10:09:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,413
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3806509
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ladytalon/pseuds/Ladytalon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She's helped him out before and when Kimiyo gets injured, Arthur returns the favor. <b>EARTH-14</b></p>
            </blockquote>





	The Nursemaid

“I need a drink,” Kimiyo announces to no one in particular.

The nurse clears his throat gingerly. “Mixing alcohol with your medication-”

“Isn’t your problem, because I’ll be discharged before you finally learn to decipher my chart,” she snaps back. “You may leave.” Turning her head towards the window, Kimiyo clenches her jaw and wonders just when they’ll let her out of there. She isn’t paying them to make her wait so long, and just why aren’t they jumping at the chance to get her out of their hair? “I make a terrible patient,” she murmurs, gazing at the cast on her leg.

“Everyone else seems to think so as well,” a familiar deep voice says. 

Kimiyo glares out of the window at a pigeon sauntering along the ledge. “What are _you_ doing here?”

“I heard about your little mishap, and thought you might need someone to be mean to.” She whips her head around at this, and receives a smile in exchange for her frown. “Looks like I was right.”

The other Doctor Light (the _older_ one, a small voice in the back of her head says maliciously) is lounging in the chair beside her bed, in full costume with his helmet balanced on a knee. His other leg is thrown over the arm of the chair. “How long have you been here?” Kimiyo demands irritably, because it’s plain that he’s been waiting for the nurse to leave. _Spying_ on her.

His insouciant grin widens. “Long enough.”

“Arthur-” her complaint is cut off as another nurse comes back in the room with a packet of something that had better be her discharge papers. The new nurse glances over at Arthur, and then her head whips back for a longer look – he, of course, gives the woman an unnecessarily flirtatious smile. Arthur looks over at her and slowly drapes one corner of his cape over his crotch. “Can I help you with something?” Kimiyo asks sharply.

The nurse finally drags her eyes away from Arthur and opens the packet of papers. “We just need to go over a few things before we can release you, Ms. Hoshi.” Reminding the nurse that she is, in fact, a _doctor_ doesn’t do any good. “This is standard procedure with all patients,” she’s told as a checklist is flourished in front of her. “Now, please remember not to get your cast wet…” out of the corner of her eye Kimiyo watches Arthur stand up and move about the room, gathering her things together unasked. She’d yell at him for touching her belongings, but doesn’t want to give the nurse any more chances to stare at him.

Not that she’s jealous.

She signs the release papers and the nurse ducks out to bring in a wheelchair. “That won’t be necessary,” Arthur speaks up. 

“You don’t speak for me,” Kimiyo flares.

“Give us a minute,” he says to the nurse, who is only too glad to get out of there, before closing the door and turning back to her. “I’m going to take you home, whether you like it or not.”

“How _dare_ -”

Arthur holds up a hand and begins ticking points off his fingers. “Your teleportation skills need work, so you can’t ‘port home. You can’t _fly_ home, because all that pain medication has given you vertigo. You can’t drive home, because you don’t have use of your right leg and you don’t even own a car. You can’t take a cab, because you can’t trust the driver not to hit every pothole on his or her route. You can’t take that wheelchair, because it doesn’t belong to you. I’ve run out of fingers on this hand, and I’m going to take you home.”

Kimiyo glares down at her cast. “If you jostle me-”

“Feel free to vomit on my boots,” he volunteers graciously, walking over to sit on the edge of her bed and flip through her discharge papers. “Do you want to keep any of this?” When she shakes her head at him, Arthur tosses the packet in the trash and reaches for her. There’s the usual bit of disorientation that comes with teleportation, but it’s not as bad as she’d feared.

She gives a sigh of relief as they appear in her apartment, and notes that the children should be home at any minute. “You should leave,” Kimiyo suggests.

Arthur snorts as he carries her to the couch and lowers her onto it. “I’ll leave when I’m ready to, and not a moment before. Do you need more cushions, or is that fine?”

“It’s fine,” she sighs. He walks into the kitchen, and Kimiyo sighs again as she hears him open and close the cabinets. “ _What_ are you doing?”

“What do people usually do when they’re in the kitchen?” Arthur calls back to her. She hears the _thunk_ of cans being dropped on the counter, and then watches as he begins to ransack the refrigerator. “You don’t have very much in here; what do you three _eat?_ ”

“Arthur Sinclair Light-”

“Ooh, all three names. I’m making you dinner. Breakfast, too, if I can find any- oh, here they are.” Arthur grabs the carton of eggs and takes it over to the other counter, rummaging through the lower drawers in his search for dishes and utensils. “You like garlic, right?”

Kimiyo frowns as he crosses over into her field of vision once again, flinging open the freezer door. “Why, exactly, are you making dinner and breakfast?”

He gives her a frown of his own. “Tonight you’re not going to be good for anything but sitting on the couch, and I’m going to assume that at least one of your kids is going to be able to bring you a plate of food.”

“And breakfast?”

“I’m not a morning person, so you’ll have to fend for yourself until I get here around ten.” 

He disappears back into the kitchen just as the children burst through the door, and Kimiyo can’t help but think of the last time Arthur was here; _she_ took care of _him_. Imako and Yasu swarm around her, peppering her with questions about her cast and what it was like at the hospital.

_ _ _ _ _

He hears her kids come in and wonders why he didn’t just order her a pizza or something, despite the fact that he’d already determined that it was past time that they were all in the same room. Left to her own devices, Kimiyo probably wouldn’t have made the decision herself even if they’ve both decided that they love each other and have traded this information aloud.

Arthur’s never been any good with kids; he considers babies to be absolutely terrifying, and they seem to get progressively worse as they age. His…interactions… with the Titans have, quite frankly, left him less than enthused with the notion that children are ‘the future.’ Who’d want to look forward to _that?_

They jabber at their mother while Arthur considers teleporting to safety, but one of them rounds the corner and lets loose with a surprised yip. “Who are _you?_ ” the little girl demands, causing the other child to scoot in there as well. “What are you doing? Why are you here?”

“I’m Doctor Light,” he says, glancing over at Kimiyo’s son… Yasu, wasn’t it? That would make the girl’s name Imako, then.

Yasu’s eyes narrow. “My _mother_ is Doctor Light.”

“What? No! Is she really?”

“Arthur,” Kimiyo calls out warningly.

Imako trots up to him and stands on her toes to peer at the counter. “He’s the bad Doctor Light. Is that for us?”

“The bad Doctor Light? Oh, you’re the _old_ one,” Yasu says. Arthur feels his face twitch at this blithe description of himself, and sighs as he hears Kimiyo laugh. “Why are you in our kitchen?”

Arthur drops the paring knife and folds his arms. “You may have noticed that your mother is wearing a cast on her foot.”

The little brat gives him a look. “She doesn’t cook with her feet.”

“Kinda tastes like she does though, doesn’t it?” Arthur shoots back, before he has time to think it through. Leaning around the doorframe, he’s greeted by a pair of dangerously narrowed eyes. “No offense.”

Imako claps her hands over her mouth as she starts giggling. “You are in trouble now, Mister Doctor.” Her brother’s face is nearly purple as he tries not to laugh.

“ _Anyway_ ,” Arthur continues quickly, “I’ll be helping your mother until she feels up to… whatever she does.”

The boy leaves, but Imako stays to pull a chair over and climb atop it. “What are you making?”

“This is dinner, and that over there will be your breakfast.”

She pulls her ponytail around and chomps on the end thoughtfully. “How will we know how to cook it? Are you going to come back tomorrow?”

Arthur promises to write the warming instructions and leave them out for her, trying to slice the potatoes and onions as fast as he can – the sooner he’s done, the sooner he can leave. “I’m going to come over, but it’ll be after you two are in school,” he says. _And then I’ll make sure to leave before you get back_.

“Oh,” Imako says. “Your beard is really tiny. Is it real?”

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ 

The painkillers wear off completely at 2 a.m. and Kimiyo searches in vain for the prescription before she realizes that after Arthur had returned from the pharmacy, he’d placed the bottle beside her purse… and she’d asked Yasu to put it on the table so she didn’t accidentally knock it beneath the couch.

She’s never actually _flown_ in her own home before since she hardly uses her powers here, and Kimiyo hits her shoulder on the doorframe as she passes through it in the darkness. Over-correction sends her straight into a bookshelf, and she knocks her cast against the ficus. The sudden shock of pain makes her bite down on her hand to keep from screaming, and she’s barely able to make it into the kitchen to grab a handtowel so that she can shove it against her mouth and howl as loudly as she wants.

“I hope that was clean,” Arthur says as he appears in front of her.

Kimiyo presses the heels of her hands against her eyes, breathing raggedly. “What…what are you doing here?” she gasps out.

“Couldn’t sleep.” He carries her to a seat at the kitchen table, just lifting and toting as if she’s luggage, then arranges her broken leg atop another chair. Kimiyo takes several deep breaths, pressing her hands over her face as she regains control. “Here, take two of these,” Arthur says, shaking two of her painkillers into his palm and sliding them over to her. He’s powered up enough so that they can both see in the darkness of the kitchen without having to flip the light switch.

Kimiyo does as ordered, propping her chin up on a fist and watching the big man moving about her kitchen. He’s dressed in dark grey sleep pants and a white shirt, barefoot, and his hair is rumpled as if he’s just woken up. “You couldn’t sleep,” she repeats. 

“Okay, I was spying on you a little,” Arthur confesses. “You got boring, so I dozed off on the couch.” He takes two bottles of water from the refrigerator and disappears into her bedroom with them after snagging her pills and a couch cushion, then comes back out to sit at the table with her.

She can’t decide whether she should be offended, or not. “Why are you even bothering?”

“I seem to recall a time when you looked after me. Isn’t this what couples do?”

“Are we a couple?”

“Are you saying we _aren’t_ one?”

Kimiyo gives him a dirty look for answering her questions with a question, and Arthur raises his eyebrows at her as a chunk of hair flops onto his forehead. She watches him push it back before covering a yawn, which of course makes her yawn as well. “I wasn’t very nice to you today.”

“You know? I actually noticed that,” Arthur says, then yawns again. “How’s the leg?”

It still aches something fierce, but the meds are slowly kicking in. “My leg is fine. You should go home,” Kimiyo suggests, not wanting him to leave but unwilling to ask him to stay. It’s a bit silly since they’ve already admitted that they love each other, and have said so aloud.

Arthur looks at her, and her heart turns over at the smile he gives her. “I should do that.”

“Well.”

“Come on, it’s past your bedtime.” He stands up and lifts her carefully, then turns to carry her into the bedroom. Kimiyo makes him turn around while she changes into her nightshirt, which makes him laugh and point out that it’s nothing he hadn’t seen before. “Do you need to pee, or anything?” She shakes her head, so Arthur sets her on the bed and slides the couch cushion beneath her leg – Kimiyo sees that he’s put the water and pills by her bedside table, just like she’d done when he’d been injured and in her care. The sheets are cold when he pulls them up over her and she’s just resigned herself to waiting for them to warm up when he gets into the bed with her.

The medication is really starting to kick in as Arthur settles in next to her and rolls onto his side, reaching an arm across her. He dims his body’s glow and Kimiyo tilts her head to the side so that her forehead rests against his chest, closing her eyes and enjoying the warmth radiating from him. She feels Arthur shift to kiss her forehead, and smiles sleepily. “Fin head.” 

He brings his hand up to cuff her gently. “You’d better not snore.”

She’s still thinking of what she should say in response to this when she falls asleep.

_ _ _ _ _ _ 

It’s been too long since they’ve shared a bed for the night. Not that this would count as an entire night, since it’s really only been about five hours… still, it’s good. Arthur watches Kimiyo from beneath his lashes, hoping that her kids won’t come barging in to wake her up – he’d left the instructions for breakfast out on the counter, after all. Muted sounds of chairs scraping across the floor and cabinet doors banging make him watch the door, ready to ‘disappear’ should anyone decide to enter unannounced, but soon enough Arthur can hear them leave for school.

He should probably get up and start getting breakfast ready for her, but he’s still tired and it’s so _warm_ beneath the covers… plus, she’s right there and wearing practically nothing at all. Not that he’d try to take advantage because her leg is a long way from healed and nothing kills a mood quite like a few broken bones, but it’s still nice to lie there next to her and pretend that she might actually go for it.

Arthur rolls over to spoon her, and his cock gives an interested twitch as the warmth from her backside seeps through his pajama bottoms. Wrapping his arm around her waist and burying his nose in her hair, he closes his eyes and falls asleep once again. He dreams of Kimiyo being issued a pair of crutches, which she uses to chase and hit him with, but is thankfully awoken before dream-Kimiyo delivers the coup de grâce with an oversized pill bottle. “Morning,” Arthur mutters into her hair.

She yawns and starts to stretch before her leg slides off the cushion. Kimiyo makes a soft murmur of pain and, without bothering to move, Arthur causes motes of light to solidify around her cast so that it’s rearranged to her comfort. “Oh my _God_ , you are lazy,” Kimiyo exclaims. “And…that had better not be what I think it is.”

“That depends on what you think it is,” is his rejoinder.

Kimiyo’s laugh turns into a groan. “I _think_ it’s time for more medication…after I get up.” He doesn’t need to be told what she has to do first and carries her to the bathroom, using her toothbrush and rummaging through the items beneath the sink until he finds a spare razor and shaving cream. All she has are the scented kind for women; it’s a toss-up between Passion fruit Paradise and Nectarine Nirvana, but he settles on the latter. Kim clears her throat loudly to announce she’s finished so Arthur helps her to sit on the vanity while she washes her hands and watches him shave. “Peach, right?”

“Close enough.” He wipes a dollop of shaving cream onto her nose and picks up the razor, shaving while Kimiyo watches. “I should take a shower later with your fancy lady products – want to watch?”

 

“I’ll have to check my schedule. It seems as if I have a busy day of doing nothing,” she sighs. “I might as well see what there is to see.”

Arthur finishes up and she lets him carry her back to the kitchen where he makes breakfast while she takes her medication. “You should really get a coffee maker,” he says after a hunt through the kitchen cabinets turns up nothing but tea packets. Not that he has anything against _tea_ , but the caffeine jolt from coffee is what Arthur usually needs after a long night of crime. 

“If you want coffee, then go back home and make it there. You’re lucky I even allow you in my apartment,” Kimiyo points out. 

“A fact I find myself continually grateful for. I wouldn’t miss your passive-aggressiveness for the world.” He blows her a kiss which she pretends to block Wonder Woman style, and Arthur draws his index finger down his cheek as if it’s the proverbial lonely teardrop. She finishes up their impromptu mime session by ‘playing’ a violin for him, and they smile at each other.

_ _ _ _ _ _

It’s still hard to believe that he can cook so well, Kimiyo thinks as she eats her breakfast. Arthur finishes cleaning the counter and comes back to the table with two mugs of tea. “I made one for you, too, so if it’s poisonous we’ll die together,” he says seriously.

“Tea won’t kill you.”

“It _could_ , though. You just don’t know because it hasn’t killed you yet,” Arthur points out. “Bottoms up, Miko.” 

They clink their mugs together and she makes a face at how sweet her tea is, but doesn’t reprimand him for it. She finishes eating while he does the crossword puzzle in yesterday’s newspaper and tells her a funny story about Calculator and Oracle, then Arthur takes her back to the bathroom so that she can brush her teeth while he takes a shower. Kimiyo rolls her eyes as he starts singing showtunes at her. “Just when I think you can’t get any more obnoxious.”

Arthur sticks his head out from behind the shower curtain. “I’m full of surprises.”

“You’re full of _something_ , that’s for sure,” Kimiyo agrees.

“Oh, by the way… you need more ‘Papaya Perfection’ bodywash because I’m about to use it all.”

“Arthur, don’t you dare!”

He pulls the curtain open enough so that she can see in the shower caddy, waving a hand at it theatrically. “You have ten different bottles of bodywash in here, and about six shampoos.”

“Close that; you’re getting water everywhere!” Kimiyo scowls. “You’d better not be using my poof to wash your crotch, either.”

“Too late, Hoshi - it’s been where most people only _dream_ about.”

“I’d rather not hear war stories about the Pipeline, thank you.”

“Ooh, _zing!_ ” 

The empty bottle he’d warned her about comes soaring over the curtain rod, and Kimiyo wonders if she should just take the towels and stuff them in the toilet. She’s stretching out a hand when Arthur turns the water off and whisks the shower curtain aside. He looks at her and she sits back as casually as she can manage. “You smell very expensive,” Kimiyo notes. “Almost as if you’ve doused yourself in an entire bottle of… oh, wait.”

Arthur grins, water dripping in his eyes as he grabs the towel. “Maybe I can give you a sponge bath later.”

“A sponge bath.”

“The sexy kind, not the old folks home variety.”

She laughs despite herself and settles upon watching him dry himself. Arthur Light is definitely a fine-looking man, especially with his clothes off… it’s been a little too long since they’ve spent the night together. “How about a lift back to bed?” Kimiyo suggests. They don’t have to go _too_ far, but it might be nice to play a little – her leg doesn’t hurt at all right at the moment. 

“Sure,” he agrees readily. Arthur starts to wrap the towel around his waist before realizing that she might want to do more on the bed than reading magazines all day. Kimiyo confirms his suspicions by reaching out and snagging his towel, tossing it towards the hamper.

Later, when she’s curled against him and he’s sliding his hands up and down her back, Arthur whispers an _I love you_. Feeling too sleepily satisfied to move, even just to look up at him, Kimiyo presses her fingertips against his chest in a silent _you, too_. He gives her a gentle squeeze in response, and she realizes that her leg is feeling better despite the fact that she’s due to take more pain medicine. 

“How’s the leg?” Arthur murmurs.

“I was just thinking about that,” Kimiyo replies, settling her cheek more comfortably upon his chest. “It actually feels _better_ , which is strange.”

“It’s not strange at all; I have a magic cock,” he says seriously, then yelps as she pinches him. “Ouch!”

_ _ _ _ _ _

This is the longest time he’s ever spent with her at one time. He’d gotten to spend the night – well, _half_ of it – and she’d given him some as soon as he’d stepped out of the shower… his life is _definitely_ good at the moment. He’d even venture to say that this is the best it had ever been, but won’t because that sort of statement (verbalized or not) has a habit of biting you in the ass. For once Arthur doesn’t have to keep looking over his shoulder, ready to teleport out of there in case someone sees them together. Her kids don’t seem that wild about him, but there’s probably a book he can read about that or something. Maybe it’s a situation like the junkyard dogs in all those 80s movies – throw a steak at them every once in a while, and everyone gets along.

They’re currently in the living room, and Kimiyo’s flaked out across his lap watching a horror movie that Kara dropped off after lunch. After the third consecutive disembowelment, Arthur had decided to read a book instead and he’s doing his best to ignore the suspenseful music and pained screams coming from the television. “Oooh, just look at that,” she urges suddenly, and he lifts his eyes in time to see a severed head sailing across the screen.

“That’s a good one, Miko,” he says dutifully. “It really got some air that time.”

“You’re no fun,” Kimiyo accuses. “If Kara were here, you know she’d call you a pansy for not liking her movies.”

Arthur thumps her on the head with his book gently. “ _Nobody_ calls Doctor Light a pansy.”

“Really.”

“Yes, really. I’m more of an amaryllis,” he says thoughtfully, and she shushes him when the killer appears onscreen. “Just let me know when I’m next allowed to speak.”

“Artie, _shhh!_ ”

He goes back to his book, trying to read despite Kimiyo’s gasps of “look behind you!” and the fact that she’s got a death grip on his left bicep that’s cutting off circulation. She gradually calms down and is actually _silent_ for such a long period of time that he glances at her, sure that she’s fallen asleep – Kimiyo’s eyes are closed, so he continues reading. Unfortunately, he doesn’t look close enough to realize that she’s shamming so that a few seconds later she scares him half to death by shrieking at him.

His book gets launched into the air and Arthur very nearly dumps Kimiyo right off of his lap. “Je-sus _Christ!_ Kim, god _dammit!_ ”

Kimiyo is laughing hard enough to make tears run down her face. “You should have seen yourself,” she howls up at him, looking so pleased with herself that he has to laugh too.

“I hate you,” he says, giving her a shake. “Did I mention that lately?”

She opens her mouth to speak and sits up quickly, but her cast strikes the couch with an audible _thump_. The color drains from her face and the tears in her eyes are no longer from laughter – Arthur reaches for her, and Kimiyo grasps his hands like they’re a lifeline as she tries to keep from crying out in pain. “ _Ohhh_ , ow. Oh my God, that hurts…!”

Arthur gestures towards the kitchen, and a thin tendril of light snakes through the air to where her medicine is sitting on the counter. Concentrating hard, he ‘brings’ the bottle to where they’re sitting and unscrews the cap as quickly as possible – she swallows the pills he hands her and takes a few more moments to compose herself. “C’mere,” he urges, but she’s having none of it.

“Just leave me alone for a while, Arthur,” Kimiyo says, the pain making her snappish. Well, more than usual. “You’ve been here all day. Don’t you have something to steal?”

“As a matter of fact, no. I told Noah that I was taking the day off because someone needed me.”

“I don’t need you.”

“Of course not,” he soothes. “I was referring to my penis; I need to catch up on my masturbation schedule. Now, give me your leg.”

Kimiyo stretches her legs out carefully so that they rest on top of his thighs, and he places his hands on her cast. “What do you think this is going to accomplish?” she asks, then gasps as Arthur pushes his light-energy through the fiberglass. She leans back against the couch cushions, sighing as he strokes his hands up and down her leg. “What _is_ that?”

“If you’ve got a broken bone, heat tends to make it feel better.” He doesn’t bother reminding her that when he’s injured, being powered up makes him heal faster – Arthur isn’t quite sure how that works, but it just _does_ somehow… and since she’d felt better after they’d made love earlier, he’s willing to bet that it works for her as well. She doesn’t ‘draw’ from her environment quite the same way he does, but he’s willing to bet that the strength of her response to him should trigger some sort of healing. Arthur sends another pulse through his hands into her body, and this time her body begins to glow.

She hums, and he can feel the vibrations of it deep within his own chest. Power-shares like this one aren’t something they do often but his body remembers the usual circumstances in which they’re both powered up, so his cock is at half-mast within a matter of moments. Odds are she can’t feel it through her cast, but Arthur still can’t help feeling a bit foolish - now certainly isn’t the time to ask her for sex.

“ _Much_ better,” Kimiyo sighs, stretching and reaching out for him. “Come here.”

Well, maybe it’s the perfect time after all. He lifts her cast up, weaving a protective shield of light for it, and shifts to settle into her arms. She gives his goatee a pull to help reel him in, and her active power sparks against his tongue when they kiss. Kimiyo smiles against his mouth as she pushes her hand beneath the waistband of his jeans. The sound of a key in the door causes both of them to freeze, then Arthur hurls himself backwards while pressing the heel of his hand into his crotch to help dispel his erection; Kimiyo pats at her hair, tosses his book over to him, and snatches up the remote control.

The kids come charging in just as Arthur opens the book and when he glances up, he’s forced to jostle her urgently because she’s put the television on some nature channel and there’s a program about lions mating in the wild. Kimiyo fumbles the remote and puts it on C-SPAN, then they exchange a quick look while trying desperately not to laugh.

“You’re here again,” Yasu says after Kimiyo greets him and is giving Imako a hug.

“Looks like it,” he agrees.

“How long have you been here?”

What the hell? “Um, long enough? I didn’t know there was going to be a pop quiz.”

_ _ _ _ _ _

It’s definitely going to take some time for her children to get used to him, and vice versa. Kimiyo watches Arthur’s discomfort grow as Yasu interrogates him, then she decides to put the poor man out of his misery by cutting him loose. “Why don’t you take some time for yourself? After all, I’ve had you here all day… I’m sure you’re tired of it already.”

“I could have used the time to prepare for the Spanish Inquisition, if I’d only been warned what to expect,” Arthur says pointedly.

“Nobody expects the-”

“ _Thank you_ , Kimiyo.”

She smiles up at him as he stands. “Bedtime’s at nine,” Kimiyo reminds her two, giving Arthur a meaningful glance. “And I will see you later, Doctor.” He says his goodbyes courteously and teleports away without bending to kiss her, which turns out to be a good idea when she sees how Yasu is scowling.

Imako hops up onto the couch next to her for another cuddle. “Is he gonna come back?” her daughter questions.

“Would you like him to?” Kimiyo asks curiously.

The little girl shrugs her shoulders. “I think he’s scared of us, but he cooks good.” She giggles suddenly. “His beard is funny, isn’t it?”

Kimiyo has to laugh. “Yes, it is.”

“Well, _I_ don’t like him,” Yasu says flatly.

She looks over at her eldest, who’s fiddling with the zipper of his jacket, and phrases her query carefully. “I realize that. Could you tell me why?” 

“He’s a _villain_ , Mom. You’re… you’re a hero. He steals stuff and goes to jail a lot. You two just can’t, you know, it’s not something you’re supposed to do,” he finishes awkwardly. “Plus, he looks at you weird.”

Kimiyo keeps herself from smiling. “Weird how, exactly?”

“All goopy and stupid.”

“I see.” She clears her throat and settles back against the cushions. “Do you remember meeting the Arrows last year when I took you two for a tour of Justice Hall?” Yasu nods. “After the tour, Roy brought his daughter when we all went for lunch… do you remember who Lian’s mother is?”

Her son thinks about it and when he makes the connection, Yasu’s shoulders slump. “Oh.”

Kimiyo reaches out for his hand. “Look at me for a moment? I have known Arthur for a _very_ long time. I wouldn’t let him near either of you if I did not think that he was a good man. Could you give him a chance, please?”

Yasu digs his toes into the carpet. “I guess so.”

The rest of the day is spent helping with homework, doing several crossword puzzles, and wondering how she’s going to get to the bathroom by herself. Imako helps with the latter by clearing the route and trotting along behind Kimiyo so that her cast doesn’t bang against anything. The kids are pleased to find that Arthur has left dinner for them and she would be, too, but her leg is starting to hurt again. Thankfully it doesn’t hurt as _bad_ as it did, but it’s enough to set her teeth on edge and hunt for her prescription.

Kimiyo also feels out-of-sorts because she misses Arthur, and is irritated with herself for missing him. It’s been a long while since she’s allowed herself to fall in love, and she’s remembering just why she has avoided romantic entanglements before now. There’s so much uncertainty, and getting used to another person’s quirks (Arthur’s penchant for crime is a pretty damned big one) isn’t a task she’s ever thrilled about… though to be fair, most of Arthur’s personality traits haven’t exactly blindsided her.

That isn’t to say that he never surprises her. The amount of patience he’s had with her during the past two days is nothing short of heroic. Why anyone would voluntarily put up with her bad attitude has to be one of life’s great mysteries, even if the man knows a few ways to sweeten her temper… and _that_ puts her in mind of what they were doing before they’d been interrupted by the kids coming home from school.

She glances down at her cast thoughtfully. Kimiyo isn’t sure why her power reacts in conjunction with his the way that they do, but it has something to do with both ATP and emotional strength – she’d love to find out for sure, but it’s highly doubtful that Arthur would consent to any sort of experiment that’s not conducted privately between the two of them. She certainly wishes she could conduct some private experiments with him right now.

It’s definitely interesting that a by-product of their…interaction… is that her leg feels better, if only temporarily. She hasn’t been taking the full prescribed dose of her painkillers while Arthur’s not around to bully her into it, and any relief is welcome. The last time Arthur had been seriously injured, she had brought him home and taken care of him; something in his physiology allows him to heal faster when he draws energy into his body and it looks like he can share the wealth, so to speak. If she can somehow manage to mimic this particular skill, it could be _very_ useful. 

Lost in her thoughts, she doesn’t realize at first that Imako is trying to get her attention. “Mommy? _Mommy_.”

“Yes? I’m sorry, I was thinking about something else,” Kimiyo apologizes.

“I just asked if we could have dessert now. Doctor Arthur made us a pie.”

She gives her permission, and finishes her dinner slowly while watching them inhale their own food. After that, it’s TV time while Kimiyo checks their homework and writes out a grocery list – she’s not sure who she’ll ask to do the shopping for her just yet, but she’ll figure that out later. Yasu does the dishes and cleans the countertops without being asked.

Ten minutes after the kids go to bed, Arthur reappears to cart her off to her own bedroom. “I missed you,” he whispers, nuzzling at her neck.

Kimiyo slides her fingers into his short hair with a sigh of contentment. “You weren’t gone long enough to miss me,” she tells him automatically, then feels like the worst sort of hypocrite since she’s been moping for the exact same reason. “But you were gone long enough for me to miss _you_.”

“How many pills did you take, exactly?” he demands as he lowers her onto the bed. The sight of him braced above her makes all her stifled frustration suddenly… _un_ -stifled. “Are you feeling any better?”

“A little. Take off your pants.”

“Okay, no romance tonight…”

Kimiyo levers herself up on her elbows, and tells it like it is. “Arthur, now is not the time for jokes. I have been wet for the past few hours because we could not finish what was started, and all I want is for you to remove your clothes and do wonderful things to me.” 

Arthur stares at her for a few moments before he realizes that she really is serious, and then disrobes so quickly that she’d swear he’d teleported out of his clothing. Hers follows suit, and then the pain of a broken leg swiftly becomes a thing of the past; all she can do is to cling to him and try not to set the apartment on fire.

As they lay basking in the (quite literal) afterglow, Kimiyo decides to ask him something she’s wondered ever since he’d appeared at her bedside in the hospital. “Arthur, why do you love me? I’ve been awful to you.”

“You’re not wrong on that one.”

“Really though, why?”

“There are reasons. Hey, I just remembered I was going to give you a sexy sponge bath.”

“Maybe tomorrow,” she yawns. “Anyway, we weren’t talking about baths just now.”

“You’re like a cactus in bloom. Lovely to look at, but get too close and you’ve got an ass full of needles. Maybe I should call you Prickly Pear.”

“Be serious,” Kimiyo sighs, settling into the curve of his shoulder and lifting her hand up to touch his throat.

Arthur strokes her hair, turning to kiss the top of her head. “You can be extremely hard to get along with… but it’s all worth it.”

She laughs. “Is that why you love me? Because I’m _difficult?_ ”

Arthur laughs, too, and his arms tighten around her. “Actually? Yes.”

“That makes no sense,” Kimiyo complains drowsily.

“It makes all the sense in the world,” her lover assures her. “You don’t care what anyone thinks of you, so you do what you want and say what you please. You’re the strongest, most confident, self-aware woman that I’ve ever met and I find that unbearably attractive. You, my darling Doctor, don’t need anyone… which makes you the one person I couldn’t live without.”

His calm confession makes her feel as if she’s about to cry and when she says as much, Arthur makes her smile by suggesting that she must be drunk. “You’re wrong, you know,” she whispers into his chest. “About not needing anyone.”

“Really, now. Do tell.” He drains the energy from the bedside lamp instead of just reaching out to turn it off, and she makes a mental note to yell at him about it in the morning.

“There’s only one person I need.”

“Yes?”

“His name is Mister Goodbar. When you go shopping tomorrow, I need you to buy me a bag of them.”

Kimiyo can tell by the sudden shift of muscle against her palm that he’s smiling. “Go to sleep, Prickly Pear.”


End file.
